When vaporizing a fluid it is highly desirable for 100% of the fluid to vaporize so that liquid is not discharged from the vaporization device. Conventional heaters desire improvement in that invariably some liquid is discharged from the vaporization device or otherwise remains within the vaporization device. In the case of fluid that remains in the vaporization device, such liquid may be exposed to excessively high temperatures which causes undesirable smoking or undesirable chemical reactions of the liquid due to exposure to the high temperatures.
Rapid heating of the heater is also essential to assuring that all of the liquid conveyed to the heater is vaporized. Complete vaporization of the fluid is important in order to avoid entraining liquid droplets in the vapor stream from the vaporization device. In some applications, the discharge of liquid is not only undesirable, but may be detrimental to the user. In order to avoid the discharge of liquid droplets from a vaporization device, the stream of fluid ejected to the heater must be efficiently captured by the heater, and completely vaporized at approximately the same rate as the fluid arrives to the heater.
In view of the foregoing, embodiments of the disclosure provide a heater configuration that advantageously avoids problems associated with conventional heaters and effectively contains the jetted fluid and vaporizes all of the contained fluid within a desired amount of time and at desired temperature levels.
In one aspect, the invention provides a heater for a vaporization device including a fluid reservoir and a porous and permeable heating element made of an electrically conductive material and located within the reservoir. The reservoir and the heating element define a fluid volume sufficient to capture and retain a fixed volume of fluid ejected from an ejection head in the vaporization device. Application of electrical energy to the heating element vaporizes the fixed volume of fluid in a fixed amount of time.
In some embodiments, the fluid reservoir is made of a material that is not electrically conductive, such as ceramic.
In another embodiment, the heating element is a mesh.
In yet another embodiment, the heating element is made of interwoven wire, and made of kanthal or nichrome or stainless steel or combinations thereof.